Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Tonight being the final Wednesday in January, it's the final night of Angela Lansbury's turn as TCM's Star of the Month. TCM is kicking the night off with the Private Screenings interview she did with Robert Osborne several years ago. Toward the end of the night, at 3:45 AM, is Dear Heart, which I recommended last April.

Angela Lansbury is a bit odd a choice as Star of the Month, as she was not the star of a lot of the movies which TCM showed. (Although, to be fair, they seem no longer to have the rights to the Disney live-action movies such as Bedknobs and Broomsticks, where she was the star.) I think you can safely call her the female lead in The Manchurian Candidate, but in movies like Gaslight she's clearly a supporting player. And in Dear Heart, she only shows up for the last 15 minutes or so. On the other hand, Lansbury, thanks to her work on the TV series Murder, She Wrote, is pretty recognizable. And since she also had a long career making movies in Hollywood, it's kind of understandable why TCM might choose to put the spotlight on her. It's a good way to use many of the same old movies to try to attract new people who might not know so much about those old films.

And speaking of Private Screenings, I was remiss in not mentioning yesterday's airing of Robert Osborne's Private Screenings interview with Ernest Borgnine from a few years ago, re-aired in honor of Borgnine's 95th birthday. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be available in the TCM media room, and I don't think it's been posted to Youtube either.